Kitchen

I cook a lot, so I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and have a number of kitchen appliances and utensils. Unfortunately, my kitchen is the size of a bread box:

Of course, my pantry is also small, a fact not helped by my dad's excessive canned goods, without which the pantry would probably be adequate.

Anyway, as you can see, I don't have a lot of cabinet space. You can imagine that this makes storage difficult. Even in a small space, though, it is possible to be clean and tidy. I shall demonstrate with a legend:

1. Wicker basket containing oven mitts and kitchen towels. The oven mitts are sorted by type; the kitchen towels are sorted by size.
2. Miniature English phone booth containing small red baskets of tea bags, one basket per variety of tea. I bought the small baskets at The Container Store and spray painted them red to match the phone booth.
3. See #2
4. Small bottle of pear liquor given to me by a coworker (later to become my boyfriend) the night I took this photo. It is the only item out of place in the entire kitchen since the liquor stash is located on top of a bookcase in the living room.
5. Scented candle. As a rule, I despise scented candles, but this one actually smells like what it's supposed to (cinnamon spice cookies), and it comes in handy for ridding the house of strong cooking odors.
6. Mostly-disused landline. It's a cordless phone that hasn't worked well since my cats knocked it off the table, trampled it, and broke the antenna off, but we keep it for emergencies.
7. French press. Way better than a coffee maker.
8. Iced tea maker. Technically a coffee maker, but used only for making iced tea since using one machine for both makes the iced tea taste like coffee.
9. Electric kettle
10. Scouring pad/sponge
11. Sink plug
12. Bonsai
13. Cactus
14. Small wooden box once containing tea; kept for decorative purposes
15. Soap and hand sanitizer
16. Paper towel dispenser
17. Cabinet. Top shelf contains coffee, malted milk powder, chocolate syrup, and spare boxes of tea. Middle shelf contains spices. Bottom shelf contains cocoa powder, almond extract, peppermint extract, salt and pepper shakers, ibuprofen, lip balm, toothpick dispenser, honey, and sugar dispenser.
18. Cabinet. Top shelf contains soup bowls and round casserole dish. Middle shelf contains rectangular casserole dish, square casserole dish, cutting board, and measuring cups. Bottom shelf contains plates, bowls, and saucers.
19. Magnetized whiteboard used for menu ideas, grocery list reminders, and notes
20. Refrigerator/freezer. I won't detail its contents in a wall of text; take my word for it that it's orderly.
21. Cabinet with trash bags, dish detergent, ammonia, and bleach
22. Cabinet with liquid soap and miscellaneous cleaning supplies
23. Cabinet. Shelf contains plastic storage bags, foil, parchment paper, and plastic wrap. Bottom contains countertop mixer, cake and pie pans, cheese grater, and travel mugs
24. Drawer containing silverware, mandolin cut gloves, and spare dry erase markers

On the other side of the kitchen, we have the following:

1. Two aprons
2. Pasta canisters (spaghetti, fettuccini, rotini, and macaroni)
3. Bamboo spoons
4. Cabinet. Top shelf contains plastic storage containers. Middle shelf contains glasses. Bottom shelf contains glasses and tea pot.
5. Cabinet containing iced tea bags and straws
6. Cabinet containing matches, kitchen scale, and juicer (I could not get a decent picture of these cabinets.)
7. Microwave
8. Cabinet. Top shelf contains espresso cups and liquor glasses. Middle shelf contains large mugs. Bottom shelf contains regular sized mugs.
9. Knife block
10. Rice canister
11. Flour canister
12. Sugar canister
13. Stove
14. Oven
15. Drawer containing measuring cups and spoons, paring knives, vegetable peeler, cheese slicer, handheld mixer beaters, corkscrew, bottle opener, egg separater, meat thermometer, melon baller, and tongs
16. Cabinet containing handheld mixer, mixing bowls, and pans
17. Drawer containing wooden spoons, basting brushes, spatulas, serving spoons, meat cleaver, steak knives, meat fork, ice cream scoop
18. Cabinet containing saucepans, pots, and colanders

On the other side of the counter, facing the living room, is one more cabinet with an accompanying drawer. The cabinet holds flour, sugar, my food processor, and my mandolin; the drawer holds baking supplies.

That's about as thorough a tour of my kitchen as I can provide. It's a small space, but with a lot of trial and error, I found out what worked and what didn't. I learned to stack dishes inside each other, get rid of those I didn't use, and not keep anything in the kitchen that didn't belong there. Here are some useful tips I picked up along the way:

Cleaning:

• Most of my kitchen cleaning can be done with only glass cleaner or soap and water. I try to cut down on the use of harsh chemicals, but sometimes something stronger is necessary for the stovetop or something.
• Use the dishwasher only for dirty dishes; meaning, unload it as soon as the dishes are clean. Piles of dishes are revolting. They smell, attract insects, look bad, and of course prevent you from having any clean dishes.
• Wipe down small appliances before and after every use, especially after.
• There is not a lot of dusting to be done in the kitchen since I usually wipe down the counter tops, range, and windowsill daily. As it is, I only really have to dust a couple of things on shelves and the miniature British phone booths that hold my tea.
• Wipe down cannisters of pasta, flour, sugar, etc. every week or two.
• Wipe off the top of your refrigerator every week or two.
• If you use it often, clean out the toaster or toaster oven at least once a week. Grungy, burnt on bread crumbs are gross, can burn and smell inside the toaster, and there's the off chance that you might end up ingesting some of that.
• Don't dawdle when it comes to cleaning up stove or oven messes. Wait only as long as it takes for the appliance to cool down, and then wipe it down immediately. Burnt on food is nearly impossible to remove.
• Remove the burners from the stove and clean under them every week. If need be, you can buy replacement burner plates in home improvement stores.

Organization:

• Throw out anything you don't use or need. Only keep duplicates of cookware/bakeware you use often. Don't tell yourself "it might come in handy someday"; if you haven't used it in a year, it's broken, it's missing pieces, and/or it's encrusted in grime, get rid of it. My grandfather's kitchen was full of dishes without lids and lids without dishes. He had several mixed sets of silverware, knives that had never been used, and innumerable chipped mugs . . . all of which I took to Goodwill.
• Use a spice rack if there is room for one, and store the spices in alphabetical order. I don't have room, so I use a shelf in a cabinet, which sucks. I store them roughly alphabetically, but I place the most used spices toward the front regardless of their places in the alphabet. One of these days I'll get a proper spice rack attached to the wall.
• Spices only really last about six months. Beyond that, they lose color and flavor. Keep track of their age by marking the month and year of purchase on the lid.
• If the cabinets over your stove/refrigerator are not otherwise occupied, store rarely used dishes/glassware/cooking accessories in them.
• In cramped cabinets, stack dishes inside each other like Matryoshka dolls. This works with all kinds of cookware and bakeware.
• Keep similar cookware/bakeware together. I keep all my pots in one stack, saucepans in another, colanders/strainers in another, and pans in another; all in two cabinets by the stove. Bakeware I keep in a separate cabinet; it is sorted according to pie plates, cake pans, and loaf pans. If I could fit mixing bowls in that cabinet, I'd store them next to the bakeware. Casserole dishes and cutting boards have a shelf to themselves along with glass measuring cups.
• Use drawers on either side of the stove for various utensils. I use one drawer for spatulas, wooden spoons, and serving utensils (things that I have immediate use for near the stove). The other drawer, my only other drawer not counting the silverware drawer, holds knives, vegetable peelers, etc. (things I don't need directly near the stove but need to go in a drawer).
• Keep aluminum foil, parchment paper, sandwich bags, etc. in a drawer or cabinet near the counter space where you need them most.
• Use space on top of the refrigerator to store cookbooks, decorative storage containers, or possibly bags of chips if they won't fit in the pantry.
• If you keep many varieties of tea (or coffee) on hand, as I do, use small individual baskets for each type. I keep my tea in small wire baskets (spray painted red) inside a miniature red phone booth.